Mirabaiby Tim Holmes

Mirabai is a 15th century Indian Bhakti mystic and poet.

Mirabai Writes a Tale

crayon, oil pastel, collage

36 x 36 inches

Mirabai

crayon, oil pastel, collage

49 x 36 inches

These
paintings, one of which has been up on this website for years,
instigated a rather interesting dialog beginning on Easter day,
2012, with a Hindu who was upset by my depicting the nudity of a Hindu
saint. Since then there has been an ongoing campaign to have these images
removed from the internet, including an online petition to this effect, which, interestingly,
reproduces unedited Mirabai Writes a Tale in its entirety! (I didn't mention that they are supposed to ask permission of
the artist to reporduce an artwork).

They find the images "lustful', which
is nowhere near my intent. I have been responding to every single
person who comments or signs the petition in an attempt to engage in
some real dialog about what I feel are very important issues of freedom
of expression and religious tolerance. But few of them ever writie back
and none for more than two exchanges.

Another unbelievable thing is that
my deep respect for the Hindu tradition stems in part from the fact
that among all the major religions it is the one that has a rich
religious tradition of an appreciation for erotic imagery that
transcends shallow titillation so common in western culture.
Ironically, this is what so impresses me about Mirabai and her Bhakti
cohorts, who are able to speak of their devotion to their god Shiva
with such thunderingly powerful erotic poetry.
For instance, hang onto your seat for this12th C. song from the Gita Govinda about a tryst between Krishna and Radha:

"0 my beloved, be content in this

and allow me to embrace you.
Crush me with your hard breasts,
entwine me in your vine-like arms
bite me with your merciless teeth
inflict upon me, 0 beautiful one,
any punishment that you wish and be happy.
Let my life not end
under the blows of Love
the five-arrowed one,
the undignified one."

...just to put in perspective what lustful looks like, the Bible has a
lot of juicy stuff, but it doesn't have blows of love! Very
impressive!

Another
question: perhaps my Hindu friends can clear up some confusion
surrounding your complaints about my painting of Mirabai in the nude,
which you find lustful. Here is a photo of the Hindu Naga Sadhus, who
obviously parade naked in public. This way of life also includes
women, called sādhvī. So is this ritual a sex orgy masquarading as
devotional or is the abjection to female nakedness simply naked sexism?